elemental links

Unintentional Cloud Watching >> Cloud Computing for Enterprise Architects

Despite my best intentions, I find myself watching the (insert meteorological pun) cloud computing space.  Only time will tell if my cloud watching is attention well spent.  If the cloud is indeed "the future of the Internet", then yes.  If the cloud is merely a repackaging of everything that we already do, then no.  Most likely, the cloud's promise falls somewhere in between, landing closer to the future than the past. 

Added to this (more likely than not) significance, are parallels with my own writings, work and interest areas (current and past), including architecture realization through blending strategies, the power of service grids, the ceding of applications to business capabilities, the morphing of boxes to platforms, and (forthcoming) creating an active information tier.

Since I haven't published blog posts for two of these concepts, let me digress for a moment.

On "the ceding of applications to business capabilities", if you have spent any time in the same room with me during the last 5 years, you've undoubtedly heard or seen some version of the following quote from me:

"By nature, SOA enables an enterprise to compose business services, business events, rules and policies into business processes and interactions that actually match the intent of the business strategists and process owners.”

The first iteration (Jan 2005) read like this:

"...SOA will be the springboard that propels IT organizations away from traditional application development toward delivering IT instantiations of business scenarios, or business scenario development.  In business scenario development, IT business solutions will be compositions of services, business events, and business processes matching the interactions of your business—with customers, partners, employees, and regulatory agencies—in the support of commerce, collaboration, and information exchange."

On "the morphing of boxes to platforms", what follows is a slide I created for last summer's ComputerWorld Data Center Directions conference.  I was asked to do a mini-presentation on server management, but as you can see, I started with a broader view of "boxes morphing to platforms" and then spoke of related management implications.

Oh, and while I'm digressing, the service grid excerpt from the introduction to my April 2006 paper on StrikeIron:

"...the intersection of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and software-as-a-service (SaaS)—the service grid model.

In a service grid, hundreds or thousands of services from a multitude of providers are available for enterprise consumption. These services, like all services, may perform a simple task such as information retrieval, or execute a complex business process.

While the service grid model provides a powerful vision for business and IT agility, it is quickly daunted by the complexities of forming and managing a large volume of micro-relationships. For a service grid to thrive, third parties are needed to connect buyers and sellers, manage service levels, meter usage, consolidate bills, and collect and disburse payments."

Despite these obvious parallels, as I was working on my 2009-10 research/writing plans, I knew it wasn't possible to cover everything I'm interested in, so cloud fell into the "interested, but no time" category.  Plus, I figured (rightly) that everyone and their dog would be covering "all things cloud" this year.

Long story, longer...After attending the Open Group's EA conference and Cloud Computing Summit, I realized that as an enterprise architect type, I couldn't (and shouldn't) escape cloud watching.  And since I'm watching, I might as well share what I see.

This said, my cloud watching plan (more or less):

1. Cloud watch with the lens of an enterprise architect type practicing business-driven architecture.
2. Share information and observations on selected (#1) cloud computing developments and activities.
3. Highlight interesting, relevant (#1) works of the cloud computing community -- providers, consumers and consortia.
4. Add to the conversation, but not engage in "yet another" syndrome. (No "What is Cloud Computing" piece from me)

Oh, and to be clear, this is additive to my plan.  I'm far from done with SOA, event processing, business architecture, enterprise architecture, active information and the business-IT relationship.

If you'd like to chat about cloud computing for enterprise architects, or any of my other coverage areas, leave a comment or drop me an email.  Please, no "story idea enclosed" emails.

January 2009, week 1 FAQ

Yes, I did return from Santa Clara, and no, I'm not lost in a snowdrift.  I took an extended (keyboard free) break over the holidays.  Ok, that covers FAQ #1 for the week, where have I been. 

As for the other questions folks have been asking me:

2. Where is my 2009 opening salvo?

I have two opening posts sketched out.  Neither is a list of predictions.  One is about considerations for 2009 brought on by external forces -- economy, new administration in US.  The other is a list of resolutions for business-driven IT leaders.  I also had a DIY punditry pictogram sketch -- think green crayons, fluffy clouds and tightening belts -- but see #1.  As for the surviving sketches, I'm working on them.

3. What's my take on the attempted murder of SOA?

If you follow me on Twitter, you know my take.  For those who don't, these tweets sum up my view:

Anne Manes SOA obit is "look at my analyst group play"; akin to "cheeseburgers are dead but demand for burgers w/cheese is at all time high" 10:50 AM Jan 6th from twhirl

@estherschindler SOA is not marketing term for me; it's approach for IT to deliver bus. capability that matches business designer's intent 10:57 AM Jan 6th from twhirl in reply to estherschindler

who wants to tell these organizations with big ROI from SOA approaches to pull their now dead implementations? http://tinyurl.com/7kcacj 12:49 PM Jan 7th from twhirl

i think @jhurwitz has some 'please shut down your soa' calls to make as well... all those named case studies in her new book 12:50 PM Jan 7th from twhirl

On the plus, by participating in the conversation on Twitter  I met some interesting folks.  And of course, partook in some amusement with the TAFKAS force. 

Interestingly, in a new post on Anne's personal blog, she says "Sensationalism is fun."  Enough said.

4. What am I working on in 2009?

I have a full slate of Elemental Links' writing / research / methods projects.  My focus areas remain as previously published.  My current "big" project involves the intersection of business analysis and service-orientation.  Next up, delving into event-processing and what I'm calling "the active information tier".

I'm continuing with client work, including the SOA Consortium.  As well, I'll be working with organizations on techniques to match business & IT capabilities to attain value.  Learn about engaging with Elemental Links here.  (remembering my marketing, marketing, marketing pledge)

5. Do I plan to post more often?

Yes.  I'll try.  Really. 

Dave Linthicum's Real World SOA podcast with me

Last Monday, Dave Linthicum and I chatted about SOA futures for his Real World SOA podcast series.  Being a gracious host, Dave allows his guest to pick the topic.  My choice was the future of SOA, not from an infrastructure perspective, but from a solutions perspective.  You could say, I'm thinking of the future of S-O-A as services, outcomes and assemblies. 

During our conversation, we touch on variety of topics including organizational issues (leadership, communication, education), portfolio management, business analysis, project managers, enterprise architecture platforms and -- you guessed it -- service design.

Check it out.  Thanks Dave!

Note to self: marketing, marketing, marketing...

...that was a tweet of mine on July 17, 2008.  It was inspired by a conversation with a prospect who thought I worked for ebizQ.  Yes, I blog over at ebizQ, but no, I'm not an ebizQ employee.  Nor, am I an employee of the SOA Consortium.  As readers here know from the rampant disclosures, the SOA Consortium is my client -- a very good one I might add.

However, I can see why people might think I work for one or the other.  Context.  If your introduction to me, or exposure to my work, was through one of those organizations, then it's a natural leap to presume employment.  Not helping my cause, over here I'm all about the topics I cover, hardly mentioning my business. 

Now, you're thinking, great, from now on every third post is going to be "engage with me", "Elemental Links is the best".  No fear, that's not the plan at all.  Instead, I added some clarifying verbiage over at ebizQ and more importantly, finally, launched an Elemental Links, Inc website.  The site has been up in a (more or less) stealth mode since late July, but in the spirit of "marketing, marketing, marketing", it's time to tell people about it.

So, if you are interested in learning about engaging with Elemental Links, my 2009 research focus, or just what's the deal with the disclosures, please visit Elemental Links.  When you see me in public, be sure to ask for one of my spiffy new business cards. 

4th Event Processing Technical Symposium, September 17-18, 2008, Stamford CT

In recognition of my early work in event-driven architecture, Elemental Links was invited to join the Event Processing Technical Society as a founding member.  EPTS officially launched in June 2008.  As stated in the press release, EPTS has five initial goals:

• Document usage scenarios where event processing brings business benefits
• Develop a common event processing glossary for its members and the community-at-large to use when dealing with event processing;
• Accelerate the development and dissemination of best practices for event processing;
• Encourage academic research, help in establishment of event processing as a research discipline, and help in collaboration between the research community and the industry, by encouraging the funding of such applied research;
• Work with existing standards development organizations such as OMG, OASIS and W3C to disseminate and where necessary incubate a set of consistent; standards in the areas of: event formats, event processing interoperability, event processing (meta) modeling and (meta) languages; EPTS does not plan to develop standards itself.

I'm happy to participate in this important work.  No surprise, my particular interests are raising awareness on business scenarios for event processing and sharing event processing best practices.  For more information on the EPTS, please visit the website.

My active participation begins on September 17, at the 4th Event Processing Technical Symposium in Stamford CT.  I'll be part of a panel discussion on the event processing market -- Is Event Processing hype, or the best invention since sliced bread.  Scheduled co-panelists are Larry Fulton, Forrester, Raman Marzabani, Event Zero, Stephanie McReynolds, Oracle and Mark Palmer, Streambase.  Alan Lundberg of Tibco will moderate the panel.

If you plan to attend the Event Processing Technical Symposium, or the co-located Gartner Event Processing Summit, please look me up - email, Twitter etc.